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Oct 30, 2012

Today I'm showing you a swatch of a glitter I was super excited about when I first heard of it, Essence Mrs.& Mr. Glitter. We have Black, Blue and Green big hex glitters suspended in a clear base. I decided to layer it over NYC Yellow Cab, which didn't thrill me at all in the end.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it didn't work :D The glitter is kind of sparse in this polish and after one coat applied with the dabbing method, my nails got gloopy and thick. I had hoped for discoball-like glitter but didn't even want to apply another coat because of how gloopy the base was.

I think I might try layering it over a blue or green metallic polish next time, just to add a little sparkle, instead of trying to cover a cream shade.

I took this of right after I took the pictures, because I couldn't live with it :D

In other news, the puppy is still a giant time suck and I'm not even going to make any promises about posting regularly anymore. Last week, we found out he had an ear infection for a long time and no one at the shelter told us. The vet said he'd need to get surgery on both ears, but we gave him ear drops first and now it looks like it's clearing up so well he might not have to get cut open after all!

Oct 22, 2012

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I fell off the face of the earth there for a little while. If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen that there's been a new addition to my family. I have a puppy to take care of now! Although he's generally well behaved, I still have to be on top of him constantly, and it took a while to get to know each other and find the right schedule for him. I do hope I'll have more time to blog from now on!

What I'm showing you today is something I've been thinking about since the 31 Day Challenge. I learned so much about nail art and also about my stash - especially that purple is underrepresented in it. Starting small, I went with a darkened lavender today, Catrice Lucky in Lilac.

It took three thin coats to be opaque and was a little streaky, but I knew I was going to put glitter on top anyway. For wearing it on it's own, I probably have to be more careful with the application. The glitter is Essence It's Purplicious, a topper I've had in my stash for ages and rarely used. It has purple and magenta square glitter and silver microglitter.

I hope you enjoyed this simple glitter gradient and thanks for stopping by!

Oct 14, 2012

Today I'm showing you a mani that I loved to wear so much, I briefly contemplated just keeping it on for the whole week :D

This match made in nail polish heaven is China Glaze Aquadelic and two fingers topped with Essence Glorious Aquarious. I did the pick-up and put-back dance with both of these polishes for weeks. With Glorious Aquarious, there was always a glitter topper that I wanted more. In the case of Aquadelic, well, I ordered For Audrey months ago from my local beauty supply, and this little one just kept taunting me "We're really similar! I'm just not as dusty! Take me home!". So I did, finally. I'm also planning to just order For Audrey online as soon as I find a shop that has a decent shipping rate.

I'm so glad I gave in to these two in the end. Aquadelic is a bit runny, but otherwise the formula is great and Glorious Aquarious is just packed with the most beautiful multi-size turquoise and clear to orange shifting glitter. It's also one of the easier glitter toppers to apply, with the pieces laying flat and not clumping up at one place.

The above two pictures were taken under artificial light, making the colors a little less vibrant. I love this mani in any condition. The colors and glitter are just so cheerful, I can basically hear "Under the Sea" right now :)

I hope you like this mani as much as I did, thank you for stopping by!

Oct 11, 2012

I'm showing you some nail art again today, but I got some exciting news this week that I'd like to share. I work at a beauty store and am surrounded by amazing makeup every day, but our nail department is lacking a little. My boss noticed my manis so he decided that next week, we're gonna have a nail art event! I'm gonna have a little station to show people how to do some simple designs, and we're offering full manis, too.

I really love doing makeup on people and I think showing them some nail art tricks is going to be really fun aswell.

Now on to my mani!

I did this a while ago, but came across the pictures recently and decided to share them here. For the base color, I used Rare Nails Strawberry Milkshakes and then painted on the patterns in an unnamed H&M color. For the cupcake, I sponged the top with Sally Hansen White On, then gave it some glitter with Essence Circus Confetti and a little dot of Essie Cute as a Button.

Rare Nails Strawberry Milkshake was a complete nightmare to work with. I think I had four coats on here, and it was still streaky in some spots. It's really sheer, but doesn't level itself at all, so even doing a glitter sandwich with it would be difficult. I have another polish by this brand that is the same kind of pastel-ish color and that one wasn't better either. I think I might try a dark color to see if the formula on those is better, since the bottles are only 2€, on the other hand I could get a nice Essence polish for that money.

I had a fail finger in this mani. I tried to do some argyle on the thumb, but needless to say, that didn't turn out right. It took much longer than I anticipated, and also my technique of dipping my brush in acetone to do the lines within the brown squares didn't work. Next time, I'll paint them on in white first and then go over the white with whatever polish I'll be using as a base.

I did enjoy doing this mani, my middle finger was my favorite :) Those swirls will be done again in red and white for Christmas! I also think that pink and brown are a match made in heaven, do you agree? It always makes me think of some sort of chocolate and strawberry dessert!